 Do these drinks dissolve your teeth? Well, as you know, gut health is certainly trending, but we tend to overlook the very important microbiome in our bodies, in our mouths, the oral microbiome. And it's the first contact your body has with the outside world, so it's critical to keep your oral microbiome healthy. So let's take a look at the three worst drinks for your teeth and mouth. Soda. Yes, even diet soda. Soda is loaded with acid and phosphates that are really good at dissolving enamel, number one. I grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and my next-door neighbor was a professor of chemistry at the University of Nebraska, Omaha, and he used to do a fun experiment for his son and me in his kitchen, and he would take a bottle of Coca-Cola and he would take a tooth that he got from dentists in the local area and put the tooth into the glass of Coca-Cola and watch to our shock that the tooth would be eaten away by the Coca-Cola. That made a tremendous impression on me for a little while, and then, of course, as a surgeon, I began drinking eight glasses of Diet Coke a day. I guess I forgot that lesson. But these things are really good at dissolving enamel, plus the phosphates in many of these sodas have been implicated in producing osteoporosis, and who wants that? And remember, almost all diet sodas not only have that acid load, but they're also loaded with artificial sweeteners, which destroy your gut microbiome. So if you want to destroy your mouth and your microbiome simultaneously, have all the sodas and diet sodas you want. Juice. Now, juice is just another fancy way for main sugar, particularly fructose. We now know that bacteria in our gut and yeast in our gut, candida, absolutely feast on fructose. They prefer fructose even more than glucose. So fruit juices are loaded with fructose. They also impair the ability of your white blood cells to engulf bacteria. And we want our white blood cells to be able to engulf bacteria, obviously. So just drinking juice fills your mouth and your gut with fructose, gives bad bacteria, bad fungi the things they want, and then impairs your immune system's ability to fight those bad bacteria that you unleash. Interestingly enough, long ago, my wife and I practiced a raw food diet for about a year. And quite frankly, got to know a lot of raw foodists, a lot of very famous raw food chefs. Many not all of these raw foodists and chefs gave up raw food, because so much of a raw food diet is fruit based. And these people had huge dental cavities, had huge amounts of gingivitis, because of the amount of fruit that they had in their diet. And it's always reminded me that be careful that we are not frugivores. We are not supposed to subsist on fruit. And fruit is a really good way of destroying your gums and your teeth. Similarly sports drinks. Sports drinks are loaded with usually sugar, artificial dyes. Have you noticed many of them seem to glow in the dark? These dyes have no place in food. They're more and more regulated. We are now finding that these dyes are increasingly toxic. They're toxic to our immune system. They're toxic to us. And they're toxic to a healthy microbiome. So stay away from the sports drinks. Now what are the two best options for your teeth and oral microbiome? Well number one, you've heard me say this before and I have no relationship with them San Pellegrino mineral water. San Pellegrino I love for two reasons. Number one it has the highest sulfur content of any mineral water. It also has been tested to have the lowest number of impurities of any mineral water test. Sulfur is incredibly good for our oral and gut microbiome. It serves as a base for many postbiotics including hydrogen sulfide which is actually incredibly good for your blood vessels. Now please avoid other carbonated waters like La Croix or others. Italy has a law that the pH in waters have to be balanced in carbonated waters. France and other countries including the United States have no laws to balance the acidity in carbonated beverages. So those of you who are using your soda makers at home, please get rid of that. That's not a health benefit. You want San Pellegrino. My personal opinion is if you want a drink like a cola pour a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar or other vinegar for that matter, apple cider vinegar in your San Pellegrino, you'll have a refreshing cola or sports drink that's going to benefit you and the short chain fatty acids and polyphenols and vinegar are going to benefit your microbiome and more importantly your mitochondria. Alright, tea. I have a great tea that promotes healthy teeth and gums called Brassica tea made out of a component in broccoli and broccoli sprouts. Yes, sounds terrible but Brassica tea made by the Baltimore Coffee & Tea Company and I have no relationship. Brassica tea has been shown to have really fascinating anti-cancer properties. Brassica tea was patented by Johns Hopkins and all of my cancer patients I prescribe Brassica tea and I have it in my office and it's part of my daily routine as well. Macha tea. Macha if you get it from Japan rather than China is a great way of getting the full benefit of green tea plus it's loaded with chlorophyll as well. Be careful. There are many additives in Chinese Macha tea that I think we need to be aware of. White Willowbark tea. White Willowbark tea many of you may know that contains a small amount of salicylic acid and fun fact we need a small amount of salicylic acid that's aspirin to activate long chain omega 3 fats into anti-inflammatory compounds called resolvins. Now they're not going to be a test on this but I actually have White Willowbark tea every day in my tea. What do you do about staining of teeth? Well I can tell you my dental hygienist just loves to see me coming because I get a lot of tea stains on my teeth and she thinks it's just great fun. Her trick which I sometimes remember to do is after you drink your tea or after you drink your coffee have a glass of water or have some San Pellegrino it's actually the foaming action really helps remove that stain. Okay to sum it up put that soda sports drink or juice down right now and pick up a spot of tea or San Pellegrino for a beautiful smile and more importantly a happy oral microbiome. I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Dr. Gundry podcast. Make sure to check out the next one here. What if you could cut out sugar for a full 30 days? Well I'll tell you this you would notice some remarkable changes to your health and your appearance.